Obama officially begins 2012 presidential campaign; how do you feel about voting for him?

[Kurokikaze]

He may have a MUCH better 2nd term just on the mere fact that he doesn't have to worry about being reelected. He tried to play buddy buddy with everyone, and try to make everyone happy, but that clearly hasn't worked.

Yeah thats a good point. Its sad that that would be the case but thats true of any politician. The only thing important after getting elected... is the next election.

Needs someone that doesn't give a fuck and just wants the country to move forward.

^ Not sure what you consider yourself... but would you honestly vote for the party that got us into this mess? >.>

[Plow]

He may have a MUCH better 2nd term just on the mere fact that he doesn't have to worry about being reelected. He tried to play buddy buddy with everyone, and try to make everyone happy, but that clearly hasn't worked.

Honestly probably the biggest reason I like Obama is that his policies aren't selfish like that, I don't think he'll risk blowing the chances of another dem getting elected next.

For example, I think due to the compromises made in his first term, and the fact that the repubs are blowing their chance to abuse the shit they've caused to make dems look bad, we have an exponentially better chance of seeing a Hillary health care plan that gets everyone covered down the road, as well as taking the next step in education reform.

I'm actually basically glad now that Hillary lost in the primary, because I don't think she would have made as big of a step as Obama did to lead us in the right direction. It's starting to feel like those things might eventually be seen as reasonable rather than pipe dreams.

It wasn't that long ago that vouchers were on the table, now repubs are doing things that would force that to fruition and as a byproduct destroying any chance of it ever falling to that.

[Cantih]

I will vote for him again but this time around I want him to take a much firmer stance on his ideals. This constant bending over backwards for the Republican party is seriously bullshit. I'm still mad that he cut that deal with them over the tax cuts but I understand that having them expire for everyone would have been a disaster. Dude needs to get his ass in gear and call out Republicans on their hypocrisy.

This. I thought he'd be more to the left back during the campaign

Spoiler: show

To be fair, the only reason I didn't vote for Kucinich in the primary is he had dropped out by the time they got to my state

, but now I'm resigned to him being a centrist. That might actually be livable but for the fact of how he handles the republicans.
When he started, holding his hand out to them, and meaning it, was pretty good in my opinion. Then they left him hanging. Ok, you give people a chance, and it doesn't work, it happens. The fuckup is that he kept his hand out, for TWO FUCKING YEARS, looking like an idiot. Especially when it was clear after the first year the GOP wasn't gonna play. And now they have the house, so even using the constitutional option in the senate holds no weight.

I'll vote for him, but because there's no other real option. Even if there is a better candidate in the party, I don't think the party would let them make any more than a token effort in a primary. There just isn't enough anger against him for the party to undercut an incumbent.

[Gredival]

Yeah thats a good point. Its sad that that would be the case but thats true of any politician. The only thing important after getting elected... is the next election.

Needs someone that doesn't give a fuck and just wants the country to move forward.

^ Not sure what you consider yourself... but would you honestly vote for the party that got us into this mess? >.>

The problem is that results in backlash against the party, then the next cycle the Republicans get to work on dismantling the progress.

The problem with American politics is that it's an eternal tug-o-war. Other countries find ways to accept the policies the other side passed when that side had a majority. American politics runs on undoing what the other side did.

[Cephius]

I'm having a hard time believing it'll matter who I vote for and who wins. Middle class always gets screwed regardless. And that's pretty sad.

[Headspace]

Bush went gung ho during his 2nd term because it didn't matter.

Obama will probably do the same.


Everyone's always looking to being re elected which is why nothing gets done.

[Kuya]

Define gung-ho? Because Bush first term seemed pretty "fuck you" to me.

[Qeomash]

He may have a MUCH better 2nd term just on the mere fact that he doesn't have to worry about being reelected. He tried to play buddy buddy with everyone, and try to make everyone happy, but that clearly hasn't worked.

The main reason I'll vote for him. The way I see it, most all of Obama's "failures" are the Republicans trying to slow down or stop everything Obama does just because he's not one of them.

Honestly, I think people just had too high hopes for him and are now disappointed. My expectation for him was "not Bush". He's done pretty fucking well at that.

[Headspace]

Define gung-ho? Because Bush first term seemed pretty "fuck you" to me.

same dif.

guy did what he wanted and didn't give a fuck.

[Rhinox]

Came in looking for erotic literature.

Was not disappointed holy fuck.

[Omniyoji]

Obviously won't vote for the guy since I don't want another "Oil Disaster".


/sarcasm

[Snprphnx]

FUCK THIS SHIT

http://blog.nj.com/njv_zohar_laor/20...e_brewster.JPG

[Thiefami]

I did not vote in the last election, and will probably not vote in this one. I know my way of thinking comes off as crazy whackjob conspiracy theorists, but I firmly believe there is US civilian governed policy, and US military policy which are run on completely separate tracks one by the people, the other by hidden powers. In the way of "national interest" we have absolutely no say in any matter. The beast is too big even for the people to sway. When it comes to gay marriage, rollerblading on pedestrian sidewalks in high volume areas, or Miss America pageants thats when the people's voted official really come into play.

[Ragnus]

I'm having a hard time believing it'll matter who I vote for and who wins. Middle class always gets screwed regardless. And that's pretty sad.

^ This.

I'm going to have a hard time voting either Dem or Repub. As much of a moderate as I am, Obama gave too much to the right in my opinion. Right now he has a pretty much 1:1 ratio of promises kept to promises broken, stalled, and compromised with another 200+ still in the works with a year and a half to go in his term. Granted he has had a lot of shit to deal with over his term with the wars... sorry "kinetic military action" but he should have gotten more done since he ran on the "Change we can believe in..." slogan. Nothing has really changed. If anything we continued to slip down the 1984esqe boosting of useless security measures that we started down after 9/11. Don't even get me started on the conservative side of things. Most likely a Tea Party candidate will get nominated and there's no way I'm voting for any of those mouth breathers.

If a suitable candidate from a major party gets nominated then I will vote for them. If not, I'm going third party or just writing in Troll Dad for president.

EDIT: Source: http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/
EDIT2: Found a more suitable write-in candidate.

[Vajra]

I'm going to put all the nominee's names on a piece of paper and in a box, when the time comes (after primaries). Next I will pick one name out of the box, and do inny-minnie-manny-moe (in a biased way so that it will guarantee the end result is not Obama) and finally I will...

Spoiler: show

pick that persons name and throw it in a fire and vote Obama beeches!!!

[Acturus]

Didn't vote for 'Bama last time, not all that interested in voting for him this time. Regretably, none of the likely Republican candidates are worth my vote either, and the American system forbids any decent third party candidate from achieving sucess. I'll probably do what I've done the last couple of elections, check in, vote on national bills, maybe read up and vote on local stuff, and leave the "Derp pick a president" option blank.

[shiarua]

I won't vote for him because he is still voting "present". Honestly hasn't done anything in his position and he simply doesn't care about the job.

[Dantrag]

I think things would pretty much be the same no matter who was in office. Seems so pointless to even have parties sometimes. Maybe if Obama grew a backbone he'd be worth his weight, but otherwise, not so much.

[Khamsin]

I think things would pretty much be the same no matter who was in office. Seems so pointless to even have parties sometimes.

That's not such a bad thing, though. Consider, half the country is democrat, half republican. Politicians want to get as many votes as possible, and they can't do it by catering to only half the country. They compromise to the best of their ability to make as many people happy as possible. Sure, they'll say 'republican' things, or 'democrat' things, but what they actually do in office is at a sort of equilibrium that's about the same no matter which party you are. And that equilibrium is where it's at because of society, and as things in society change, that equilibrium is nudged a little this way or that to keep current. All the politician has to do is keep their finger on the pulse of the nation and do a good job of hiding their scandals.

It's like the superbowl or world cup. It's never really mattered who won, but it boosts the winner's status in the nation/world view, and raises morale for the people who were rooting for them.

[tyven]

Eric Cantor 2012